“Apple has heard iPhone users’ gripes about poor battery life and decided to do something about it with the upcoming iPhone 6,” Patrick Seitz reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “The 4.7-inch model of the iPhone 6 could ship with a 2,100 mAh (milliampere hour) capacity battery, rather than the 1,810 mAh battery previously speculated for the handset, ESM-China analyst Sung Chang Xu said on Weibo this week. She said her statement was based on supply-chain sources. The current iPhone 5S has a 1,560 mAh battery.”

“However, given that the new iPhone will have a bigger display and faster components than its predecessor, the larger battery might not translate into longer battery life,” Seitz reports. “The current iPhone 5 series has a 4-inch display. A second version of the iPhone 6 is expected to have a 5.5-inch screen.”

“A survey of more than 1,500 people by WalletHero in May found that longer battery life is the top feature desired in the iPhone 6,” Seitz reports. “Respondents were allowed to pick multiple choices when asked about their hopes for the next iPhone. Longer battery life was the top choice, with 97% of respondents, followed by larger screen (85%), better camera (73%) and faster processor (43%).”

Really? Everybody I know gripes about the batteru life of their phones—iPhone or no.

My iPhone 5 with iOS 8 is just over 18 months old, and the battery life is really pathetic much of the time. AT&T made me reset the phone to try to fix a voicemail problem, and now it’s gotten even worse. Location Services seems to be running more often than it should, and I can rarely make it 12 hours before I’m having to avoid using the device at all so I’m not left completely without a phone.

Battery life is a serious issue for many, and no it isn’t just “user error”. If you don’t have issues, then count yourself lucky.

Since I don’t know you I guess I can’t be included in your survey. But you should know that not everyone has the problems you do. Case in point: me. My phone has been on for 2 days, 19 hrs since last charge. During that time it has been active for 10 hrs, 21 minutes (reading from Settings:General:Usage). My battery level stands at 40%. I USED to have OCCASIONAL battery issues but since I took the steps spelled out in this article, no more.http://www.scottyloveless.com/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain

Thanks for the article, Wingsy – I’ll check it out. At a quick glance, I didn’t see anything I didn’t know about, but I’ll read it in more detail and run through it systematically to see if it yields any noteworthy results.

I did notice a few minutes ago that when I took my phone out of my pocket, there was the Location Services arrow at the top of the screen. I know that hammers the battery, so I started quitting apps to find which one was keeping Location Services running, and it turns out Camera was the culprit. I haven’t used Camera at all this morning, so I’m not sure why if it was suspended, it would keep Location Services up. That’s troubling.

So, I’ve barely used the phone, and I’m down to about 90% after only about an hour or so off the Lightning cable. I’ll see what happens this afternoon now.

Just woke it up, and there’s the Location Services icon again. Dammit. This all got much worse when AT&T had me reset the phone. Arggh..

Ah, shucks, when I read that headline I thought Apple might fix the iPhone’s biggest flaw with new handset and ship the new model with a million volt high amperage battery that would shock jouranalists and analysts into some sense.

Is it too much to ask that I can use the features of my phone, at will, for my waking hours without having to worry about how much battery I have left?
The battery on the iPhone (and pretty much all phones) is shockingly shite.

But please, regale me with me tales of how there’s something wrong with me and everyone else that doesn’t like the battery life!

Allow me to regale you with what you’re doing wrong (probably). You probably have Bluetooth on ALL THE TIME, even though you rarely if ever use it. You probably NEVER put it in Airplane Mode when you’re not going to be using it for a protracted period. You’re probably have Mail set up to check every five seconds, have tons of push notifications, and of course don’t use the “do not disturb” mode when you’re sleeping. Maybe you watch a lot of movies/streaming video, or play a lot of games. Or maybe you just never ever shut it off (ie actually power it down), which means you could have background stuff whittling away at battery life.

A little awareness about what causes your battery to drain, and *magically* it will start to last all day and then some. I rely on my iPhone a lot, but it easily lasts me a day or two before it needs charging again.

First, Bluetooth… Have you noticed the button to enable Bluetooth is directly under the swipe zone to close Control Center? Nah, nobody will ever inadvertently turn BT on.

Airplane Mode? Uh, you do realize that’s for when you’re… Wait for it… Flying! Who the hell enables Airplane Mode when they aren’t flying? The device is borderline worthless when it’s in Airplane Mode. It sort of defeats the purpose of having a connected device if it’s going to be completely disconnected just to have a battery that lasts. That’s like saying a car gets good gas mileage if you just shut the engine off and coast. Well, duh!

My email is configured for push – you know, how Apple has it set by default.

No, I don’t use “Do Not Disturb”. Why would I? The phone is plugged in, then.

I cold-boot the phone probably once a week.

I’m very aware of how to manage the device, and yet the battery life still sucks. But, guess what? I shouldn’t have to “manage” the device to prevent battery drain. The device should do that for me. That would be the Apple way.

To turn your rhetoric around on you, a little awareness that a significant number of people are having trouble even when they’re simply using the phone as Apple designed it to be used, and magically you won’t like so pompous.

I rely on my phone daily pretty much only to conduct business, and it rarely lasts more than 12 hours without having been plugged in at some point during the day. God help you if you actually try to use GPS-enabled maps for more than a minute or two.

Next time you fly, take a look around at all the people lined up around charge ports like cattle at a feed trough and then come back and try to tell me you think we’re all just “doing it wrong.”

The only time I can justify turning on airplane mode (aside from being on an airplane) is when I am travelling and don’t want to pay absurd roaming fees. But hoy crap, when it’s on airplane mode the iPhone lasts for days using wifi, taking photos, videos, playing music etc. it’s unbelievable! But I only do this on my occasional travels and yes battery life sucks otherwise.
Of course it’s the number one request for improvement!

Better doesn’t mean it’s not already at or near the top of what’s available for phones, just that we want it better.

And no, I don’t care (that much) about more megapixels, I want even better low-light performance, and good optical stabilization, so the video mode isn’t wasting 1/4 of the field-of-view that picture mode has, in order to do software stabilization. Better flash is a distant third; if low-light capture is good, we wouldn’t need to use flash as much.

If you want longer battery life disable facebook from tracking your location at all times and also turn off background app refresh for facebook. I have seen significant battery improvement on my 4s just from doing that. Try it.

I too turn off location services unless I’m using Maps recording a run, or giving my location to someone I’m meeting. I never use BT. I use wifi whenever possible; to that end I got a ($10/month plan) mobile hotspot with a 3000 mAh battery that never seems to die. I keep cell data off unless I’m getting an MMS chain. My wife keeps a 20,000 mAh Mophie power station in her purse. There are ways to manage battery life without having a phone that rubs bald spots into your thighs.

Apple doesn’t listen to customers’ desires, it creates them, remember? So if Apple does increase battery life, it will be a byproduct of having room for a bigger battery, not because they listened to what customers want. That would be out of character.

Battery life can be extended if they used it less and turn off those location services. But, that is the by product of a device made to seemlessly blend into one’s daily routine – losing track of time then that low battery warning to bring you back to reality.